Those who have sustained a lower body injury or are suffering from a neurologic or muscular disorder as well as brain and spinal cord injury and stroke patients may find walking difficult. Relearning to walk can be a long, difficult progress....
Many disorders can affect the way you walk or even whether you can walk at all without the aid of orthotics. Orthotics include any assistive devices that aid with walking. Specialized walkers that attach to your body, canes, braces, shoe inserts...
Exercising to improve your balance and gait are important aspects of geriatric care. Improving your ability to walk and move can prevent injuries and falls and increase quality of life. Improving your muscle strength will also have a positive...
Parkinson's disease is a motor disorder that is a result of cell loss in a particular region of the brain. Because the primary symptoms of Parkinson's disease include trembling, gait instability and slowed movement, therapists place a great...
Physical therapy and gait training are very important pieces to recovering from a lower limb amputation. Proper gait training is an essential component to regaining independence. Working together with your physician, therapist and prosthetist you...
People with physical limitations require specially designed exercise equipment. People living with an amputation, spinal cord injury, stroke, traumatic brain injury and blindness are just a few examples of those who might use adaptive exercise...
Some rehabilitation programs for spinal cord injuries only focus on learning to live with your injury. Others focus on recovering movement and locomotion by using aggressive exercise and patterned neural activity. Patterned neural activities are...
Losing a leg to disease or an accident is a traumatic event. A lower-limb amputee must learn how to walk all over again with the help of a prosthetic leg, as balance and weight distribution are different than they were before the amputation. Gait...
Your gait pattern is the way that you walk or run. Some people have difficulty walking because of traumatic injuries, disease or aging. They might need to walk with the aid of a device such as a cane or walker and might be unable to walk long...
Drop foot or foot drop -- the two terms are interchangeable-- is the condition in which you cannot lift up your forefoot. The front half of your foot may be damaged from either a muscular or nervous system injury, making walking and holding your...
A unilateral lower-extremity amputation changes your center of gravity as result of you weighing less from the the amputation. Your physician will recommend weight shifting and balance exercises to help you learn your new center of gravity and...
Parallel bars are used in medical facilities for gait training if you're severely deconditioned, such as after a long illness or injury, after a surgery when you have weight-bearing restrictions and when you need to adjust to a prosthetic limb...
You may be ready to begin using a prosthetic leg once your amputation wound heals. However, the process of adapting to the loss of a limb and placing your weight on a prosthesis can take some time. In conjunction with a prosthetist, a physical...
Learning to live with a prosthetic leg can be a difficult and emotional time for a recent amputee. Besides the psychological effects of losing a limb, the physical aspect of learning how to walk can often be overwhelming. Working with a physical...
Knee replacement exercises involve strengthening your muscles and increasing your mobility. The exercises will be uncomfortable, but are necessary for recovery. Doing the exercises consistently and diligently will speed your recuperation, states...
Diabetes brings complications. Wounds or cuts on the foot of a diabetic might not heal quickly, if at all, leaving some people dealing with infection. In cases where infection in a foot sore or wound refuses to heal and sepsis or infection carried...
Foot drop is best described as a symptom of an underlying condition. It's often characterized by the inability to lift the affected foot, causing it to drag on the ground as you walk. The origin of the foot drop typically influences the method of...
Paraplegia is paralysis of the lower extremities and trunk. Paraplegia occurs because of an injury to the spinal cord at the level of the first thoracic vertebrae or lower. Paraplegics typically experience a severe drop in muscle mass after injury...
Most athletes benefit from the addition of training to increase acceleration and foot speed. Soccer, basketball and football players all improve their performance when they are able to accelerate quickly and move over the court or the field...
When you are recovering from injury, your doctor may often recommend physical therapy, which can help to treat the pain and discomfort felt during movement. Physical therapists asess your current condition and help your return to your normal...
Shin splints -- or tibial stress syndrome -- are a common running injury which involves pain in your shins. Shin splints can arise for a variety of reasons, including overtraining or drastically increasing your weekly run mileage. If you get shin...
Cerebellar ataxia affects the nervous system by decreasing balance and coordination most typically in the trunk, arms and legs. There are acute, chronic progressive and recurrent forms of cerebellar ataxia all with similar symptoms and treatment....
A stroke is a life-changing event that can sometimes leave you paralyzed. When a stroke occurs, blood flow to the brain is interrupted. When the brain does not receive adequate oxygen, mechanisms like muscular control and innervation can be...
Hip dysplasia is an instability or looseness of the hip joint. This condition affects thousands of children each year. According to the International Hip Dysplasia Institute, the severity ranges from mild instability to complete dislocation. If...
Robotic treadmill training is an effective way to treat patients that have suffered from traumatic spinal cord or brain injuries, stroke, cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis. Studies indicate this type of training increases activity in parts of...
Your patellar tendon runs underneath the kneecap, connecting it to your shinbone. You use the patellar tendon, along with your quadriceps muscles and quadriceps tendon to straighten the knee. A patellar tendon rupture signifies the tendon is...
Hip dysplasia also is known as a developmental dislocation of the hip joint. It occurs when the hip joint is not firmly held in its socket. Hip dysplasia usually occurs at birth and worsens as a child begins to walk and becomes more active. This...
Tuberculosis primarily affects the lungs. Pott's disease is tuberculosis that has spread through the blood to affect the spine. Once you develop spinal tuberculosis, you risk spinal curvature, otherwise called kyphosis. Because of the risk of...
Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, is a highly-invasive surgical procedure that can include implanting a hamstring allograft to serve as a replacement ligament for the ruptured or torn ACL. Rehabilitation will begin shortly...
Running is an exercise many people enjoy for cardiovascular health and as a complement to dieting or weight training. Learn how to start running for health in this exercise video.
